Research by Ardent Partners reveals that 95 percent of organizations believe their contingent workers are critical to daily operations and their company's overall success.

Gig workers have become an accepted part of the workforce, but have employers kept up with their needs? Gig workers have not only taken the economy by storm, but they've also changed the landscape of work.

To keep these new gig workers engaged and involved, companies will need new tools.

This is what I'd like to discuss today.

The Need to Engage All Employees Equally

Paul Zak in his book Trust Factor recommends treating all employees as volunteers. Like volunteers, he says, regular employees may choose to leave at any time.

This is particularly true for gig workers.

It has become more important than ever to ensure that all employees, even contingent ones, have a positive employee experience.

One gig worker's negative experience with your company may not seem to matter, but negative news travels fast. Especially online!

But how do you give contingent workers the full employee experience?

You don't see them face-to-face, you can't provide them with office equipment or a nice office space, and you may not even be aware of what they truly think of the company.

Hiring

Millennials are widely known as a job-hopping generation, but there are steps you and your HR department can take to minimize this risk.

HR needs to play more active role in hiring and communicating with contingent workers.

Research reveals that although millennials are still motivated by paychecks and willing to switch jobs for small increases, money doesn't necessarily have the ability to keep your workers in place. Purpose is more important than pay in retaining millennial employees.

Companies must now consider the intrinsic motivation when hiring employees. A gig worker who holds a shared purpose with your organization is more likely to stay and feel connected to the group.

The New Management

Managing employees in a gig economy era has shifted traditional staffing practices. A simple command and control hierarchy is no longer tenable.

Trust, along with the sense of a positive company culture, keeps gig workers engaged. The manager becomes less of a supervisor, and more of a mentor or coach, guiding contractors through projects as needed.

With the digital workforce, clear communication is essential.

There are fewer opportunities for the contingent worker to communicate and connect. That's where tools for video conferencing or real-time collaboration can help.

Skype, Google Hangouts, and Jitsi Bridge allow managers to communicate more readily with their mobile workforce, while Google Docs and OpenOffice give opportunities for real-time collaboration.

Appraisal and Recognition

Conducting appraisals is a tricky affair when a significant percent of your workforce isn't physically present. Annual performance reviews won't cut it anymore, and even large corporations are doing away with them.

Instead, companies are going with on-going evaluations and project-based appraisals.

Gig workers, like all employees, also appreciate recognition. Sharing good news with your contingent workforce, keeping all employees up-to-date with the company news, and communicating the results of their projects keeps gig workers feeling in the loop.

By Robin Smith, CEO and Co-founder WeGoLook

#ImALooker

Want to Learn More about Insurtech and Fintech plus the future of Insurance, Banking and Finance?

In 2016, global insurtech investments totaled $1.7 billion, with both the volume and value of deals roughly doubling since 2014. This doesn’t include companies that are self-funded, have traditional financing, or work with angel investors to bring innovation to the $4.5 trillion global insurance industry. And, every segment of the insurance value chain has been impacted by those investments, including claims.

We are excited to announce our partnership with the CCC ONE platform to help insurance policyholders file self-service claims remotely. CCC ONE is a cloud platform developed by CCC Information Services, Inc. (CCC), a leading software as a service provider to the automotive, insurance, and collision repair industries. Founded in 1980, CCC leverages the CCC ONE platform to link a vast network of more than 350 insurance carriers, more than 24,000 repair facilities, hundreds of part suppliers, dozens of third-party data and service providers, and car manufacturers.

Through this partnership, CCC’s customers can electronically connect to our on-demand field force of more than 40,000 well-trained Lookers who are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our Lookers are always standing by to help insurers provide a high-level of service at a critical point in the claims process. When assigned, one of our Lookers will gather imagery and information in the field, in any U.S. location—even rural areas—in as little as one day.

How it works

When a claim qualifies for CCC’s mobile channel, policyholders are instructed by their insurer how to capture and upload photos of the damage via their smart device. However, when the policyholder requests assistance, or they do not complete the process within the insurer-defined period, insurers can send us an electronic notification through CCC ONE.

As soon as we receive the request for assistance, we dispatch a nearby Looker to take and upload photos to CCC ONE. Once the photos are uploaded, they are immediately available for insurance appraisers to initiate the claims or repair process.

Additionally, any of CCC’s customers can directly assign claims to WeGoLook through CCC ONE. Once assigned, we immediately dispatch Lookers to capture and upload photos and other requested information from the site of the claim.

It’s a win, win, win

We’re very excited about this partnership the many ways it allows WeGoLook to offer value to policyholders and insurers alike. With CCC and WeGoLook, policyholders gain an even more seamless experience when filing self-service claims. Insurers get access to our on-demand workforce through the CCC platform to help them provide even better service to their insurance industry clients.

And for us, this partnership furthers our mission, and the mission of our parent company, Crawford & Company, to help restore and enhance lives, businesses, and communities.